SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF BELL TOWERS IN KEFALONIA, GREECE DURING THE 2014 EARTHQUAKE SEQUENCE

Abstract eng:
Bell towers are structures that are of particular interest regarding their dynamic and earthquake response, which has been the subject of research in the past. A large number of bell towers with dimensions much larger than the ones examined here are located in numerous cities in Italy and around the world. This paper deals with in-situ measurements as means of system identification of two bell-towers located in the island of Kefalonia, Greece which was subjected during the winter of 2014 in an intensive earthquake sequence. The height of both these bell towers is approximately 21.5m; they are made of reinforced concrete with a hollow cross-section. Their dynamic characteristics of these bell towers were measured in-situ through a series of free vibration tests that were performed following the earthquake sequence. Subsequently their dynamic response was numerically simulated employing a 3-D elastic numerical simulation shell elements. The foundation was included in the numerical model assumed to be a mass-less concrete block that is formed by mass-less horizontal slabs and vertical slabs. A number of linear horizontal and vertical links are also employed aimed at representing the resistance of the soil surrounding the foundation block.. Following a successful numerical simulation of the measured dynamic response for both bell towers, predictions of the forcing levels for these two bell towers were obtained. Towards this objective all the available information obtained by the in-situ measurements was utilized together with the measurements of the ground acceleration during the most damaging 3rd February 2014 earthquake event, as mentioned before. Next, use was made of these predictions in order to discuss the observed performance. In this discussion, the influence of the structurefoundation-soil interaction is also considered.

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